


I Spy

by Abby_Ebon



Series: It's Not A Rabbit Hat [49]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Orphans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-19
Updated: 2013-04-19
Packaged: 2017-12-08 22:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/766967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abby_Ebon/pseuds/Abby_Ebon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teleprompter:</p><p>Prompt:<br/>Alex Rider&Harry Potter</p><p>When Harry was young, there was a neighbor, Alex, who saved him one time<br/>Dudley was chasing him. When Harry returned from his first year at Hogwarts,<br/>Alex had left. Now, in London, Alex meets Harry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Spy

The thing about Alex Rider is this; he's rarely been comfortable in one place for a long time. It's not the people, or the place, it's how he was raised. Most people, he had realized sometime between five and ten, stayed in one country their whole lives, spoke one language. As he got older he realized it wasn't simply one country, it was one village, or one town, or a city that people usually called _home_ and meant it to be until they died. Alex had a hard time thinking like that. He didn't have a problem making friends, but they weren't the sort of friends Alex took to meet Ian. Alex could think of only one boy, who became his best friend the day Alex found him in his yard, hiding.

"Hello, are you okay? What are you doing in there?" There had been a shed in the yard, Ian didn't use it, and Alex had spotted the blur of black hair and slender body quite by coincidence making for the shed. Inside was all dark, Alex couldn't see anything because his eyes weren't adjusting between dark and daylight, and for a moment Alex felt silly, maybe he'd been mistaken.

Maybe the boy had slipped away as quick and easy as he'd come. Alex hoped there was someone, they'd had only lived here a few months, and nothing _interesting_ ever happened here in Little Whinging.

"Hiding." It was as faint as the wind that whisper. Alex thought he saw a glint of eyes in the shed, green as Easter grass.

"Why?" Alex asked, as he boldly looked about for what could cause a boy to hide in the dark.

"My cousin, Dudley and his gang are Harry Hunting…I'm Harry." Alex scowled into the dark, Ian's moving habits aside, his uncle had raised him with firm right and wrongs. You buckled up in the car, you didn't play outside in the dark, and strangers were just as dangerous as friends, and bullying was not done, you helped, you didn't hurt.

"Please don't tell them I'm here." Harry pleaded, soft and whispery, as if – if he spoke too loudly, someone would hurt him. Alex didn't like that, it was…wrong.

"I won't, promise, why don't you come inside the house? You can hide better in there than out here." Alex didn't dare come nearer, because he knew if he did, Harry, like some wild animal, would flee from him. Harry wasn't the type to fight. Or maybe he had good reason not to.

"Really?" Harry sounds hopeful, so much so that Alex knows he has to help.

"Yeah." He says, and means it - Alex gets a good look at Harry as he steps slowly into the sunlight, he's got black hair and great big green eyes – but maybe that's the thick glasses – he's wiry and slender to the point where Alex thinks Harry must be hungry. The urge to hide him in the house, to feed him, and to give him better cloths than the faded and worn ones that hang off him like he's a clothing rack. Alex notices all of it, even the sloppy stitching, and thinks of finding Dudley and his gang and giving them hell.

Alex doesn't say any of that, Ian says look, don't touch, and that it's rude to say what you think. So he leads Harry to the house, not looking backward until he's at the sliding glass door and pulling it open for him, and he sees Harry looking at the yard with its oak trees and flower beds. The people who lived here before Ian and Alex were gardeners with green thumbs, and it still shows. Alex keeps it behind his teeth, that Harry likes green and growing things, so he can think on it. Maybe invite Harry back with a yarn to do the yard work, earn some pocket money?

Alex heads to the den, where the TV is and sprawls onto the sofa, turning it on and waiting, feeling as if Harry might turn and bolt if he talks to him, or turns up the volume, or looks. Maybe it's all in his head, but Alex doesn't think so. He waits until Harry takes a seat, not on the sofa with him, but in one of two of the recliners; the one furthest from Alex and closest to the yard.

There is a sudden knocking on the door and Harry's wide eyes and very still, Alex tries to make light of it, putting finger to lips and getting up to see who it is. The boys at the door are all bullies, Alex can tell at a glance, from their sneering to their smirks. There are five of them - _Harry Hunting_ indeed.

"Hi, I'm Dudley Dursley…" Alex can hardly believe this boy, thick in the middle, with dull blue eyes, is _Harry's_ cousin. Alex lets his confusion show.

"So?" He says, hard and curt.

"I'm looking for my cousin, Harry, I think he may have come around your house do you mind if I…" Dudley starts pushing past Alex into the house, but Alex won't have it, using the leverage of the door to block him.

"No, I don't think so. You'd better leave, Dursley." Alex, before the bully of boy can get a word in edgewise; slams shut the door into his stupidly surprised expression.

"Well, that's that, do you want something to eat Harry?" Alex asks, smiling in satisfaction. Harry has a small smile on his face as he nods. Alex makes tea and they have biscuits and sandwiches.

Ian comes home and Alex asks his uncle to call Harry's uncle and have Harry sleep over. Harry seems surprised when it's allowed, but Alex doesn't see why he should be, as it's a weekend, and almost summer vacation. Alex vows to keep Harry over at his house, safe, because Alex isn't stupid and sees the bruises baggy clothes can't hide.

Ian says he's proud of Alex, because he sees that Harry is being hurt by his cousin, and maybe his uncle and aunt are blind to it, their son bullying their nephew. Ian promises to talk to them, and he does, but never shares what they've said to Alex. He only says that Harry's a orphan, and a orphanage would be worse than his home life, but Ian keeps a close eye on Harry when he gets a chance to see him. Ian listens, when Alex tells him that if Harry's going to Stonewall High, well, so is he. He doesn't argue, only nods thoughtfully.

Everyday until summer starts, Alex walks Harry from school, to 4 Private Drive, than to Alex's house, sometimes until dark, when Alex and Ian walk Harry home, most weekends, Harry spends with Alex.

Until, one day, the perfectly ordinary, no nonsense, hard hearted (and headed) Dursley's disappear – with Harry Potter.

They come back, but Harry Potter does not.

Alex knows Ian looks for him, and it doesn't give him any comfort, that the Dursley's could have gotten away with murder (there are, Ian tells Alex, no birth records of Harry Potter, and no school paperwork lists Harry Potter as living with the Dursley family, a huge oversight that no one knows how it could have happened) …murder, and no one will ever know enough to care - no one but Alex, and Ian.

Three days after they come back, Alex tells Ian he doesn't want to live in Little Whinging, not ever again; he's sick with depression and dread. He doesn't want to start in Stonewall High without Harry, so Ian moves them, and that's what Alex has come to expect, the moving, like running, never quite quick enough to leave that sick fear behind, never calling a place home.

Alex is now fourteen, his uncle Ian is dead, but he's living in London alone but for his housekeeper/friend/guardian Jack Starbright - when he sees Harry Potter again. He's in a crowd of red heads, tucked between one ginger with freckles and one brunette girl walking with her nose in a book. Harry and the ginger seem not to see anything wrong with that, taking turns guiding her around obstacles, like street curbs, sign posts, and other people walking down the side walk having the bad fortune to have to go by.

Alex sees him, and his heart flutters like a bird flying.

Alive. He's _alive_.

Alex can't help grinning like a loon, standing up from the restaurant's outdoor table, just to keep Harry in sight a little longer. He walks behind them, keeping Harry always in sight.

Alex can't help himself, spy or no spy, missions, bad people watching him just to manipulate him, governments with all their good intentions and ill gotten power – he doesn't care, Tom Harris takes Alex to be his best friend, because, yes, Alex saved him from his bullies – but, Harry… it Harry was who _taught_ Alex how to be his Tom's best friend, how to save him and make him strong, and Alex has always felt he failed Harry.

Harry and his red headed family and mousy haired girl seem to be going no where, as if they're touring London and seeing all the sights. They turn the corner up ahead, across the street, and for some reason – maybe Harry senses someone watching him, he turns his head and just for a moment, sees Alex Rider smiling across the street from him. Harry's green eyes go wide, and he stops right where he is – time enough for Alex to cross the street at a jog, and put his hands on Harry's shoulders, warm and alive under his palms.

"Hullo, Harry, been a while, hasn't it?" Harry, fourteen years old, hugs Alex like he's missed him, hard and long, and Alex's is glad he isn't the only one who has missed his best friend.

"Where'd you go?" Harry asks, hurt and happy all at once, and Alex – well, Alex could ask just the same question.

Alex keeps his eyes open, resisting any temptation to close his eyes and hold on tight – he sees the ginger boy and the girl glance at each other, sees twin red heads with wide eyes, the oldest boy smirks at him – the younger with a earring only raises a brow, a proper looking prat sniffs and looks around pointedly – and the girl, the youngest of what Alex must assume to be her brothers, she blushes red like her roots. The two adults, the man hugs the woman with a small smile. They think its sweet, Alex thinks, two teenage boys hugging in the middle of the street like idiots. Alex has never felt less like an idiot though.

"Here, mate, been waiting here for you all along – tried to find you, you know, but there isn't any record of your birth, or…or death, I was so _sure_ the Dursley's went off and killed you, Harry. I looked, Ian looked, but I couldn't find you, and…no one could do anything." Alex had never felt so helpless than that summer. He's hated the season ever since, but now…now he thinks he can learn to like it.

"No, I…I found a family, I guess you could say, went away to school, and…and when I came back to look for you, you were gone and there wasn't a trace of you." Alex, knowing what he does now about Ian (a secret agent, a government spy) can well believe it. Somehow, they've both survived, and Alex won't waste time with stupid questions like _how_ or _why_ , or _where_ – because Alex knows a few things about keeping secrets.

Harry Potter is his biggest one, all strength and weakness wrapped up in one impossible person; Alex doesn't have to ask, because Harry being Harry _tells_ him all he needs to know, and more - magic, wizards, witches, wands, and Hogwarts – the Burrow.

It's a big one, but well worth it.

Alex finds out, after the Weasley family use the fire place – bidding goodbye to Arthur, Molly, and Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Charlie, Bill; Hermione Granger steps aside with Alex just long enough while Harry says goodbye with handshakes, hugs, and kisses – to tell Alex, Harry will have to go back to the Dursley's this summer, if Alex Rider doesn't stop him.

Alex tells Harry, after Hermione's gone up in green flames with a wink that he's got a bedroom for Harry to stay in, and everything in his house has been lonely with just Jack and Alex to live in it. Harry's welcome to stay the night, since it's so late at night, he can go back to the Dursley's tomorrow, after he's eaten – and met Tom, of course, and than Ron comes over with Hermione and stay over with him, and than all four of them go to the Burrow and come back to Alex's house – which Harry calls home, and the next day Tom meets Ron and Hermione….before Harry realizes it, he's stayed the summer.

Jack (who Alex tells everything to, as there is no sense trying to lie to her) she calls every night of it to say Harry's staying over, of course, maybe he'll be back tomorrow – but, don't count on it.

Harry's home during the school is Hogwarts, but during the summer, it's Alex's house, and that's what makes a home.


End file.
